Green Purchase Behavior: The Effectiveness of Sociodemographic Variables for Explaining Green Purchases in Emerging Market

Lucyna Witek,Wiesława Kuźniar

doi:10.3390/su13010209

Lucyna Witek, Wiesława Kuźniar

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su13010209

Copy DOI

Abstract

Environmental degradation is a serious problem in modern civilization as it causes changes in consumer behavior towards ecologically responsible purchasing. In order to understand the green product purchasing decision process, an extensive literature review on green purchasing behavior was conducted. The current study is an exploratory research and the purpose of this paper was to investigate how sociodemographic factors explain consumers’ green purchase behavior. The differences between gender, age, education level, personal financial situation, and the number of children in the family were examined. To achieve the goal, we conducted a survey among 650 Polish consumers. Our findings suggest that all of the above-mentioned sociodemographic variables have an impact on awareness and purchasing behavior towards green products. Moreover, the results show that female consumers have more positive attitudes towards purchasing green products, than male consumers. Young consumers are skeptical about green products. A positive relationship was established between education and the acknowledgement of the dominance of one’s own needs over the needs of the environment. The better the personal financial situation, the more people expressed their intention to buy green products. The paper shows the implications for marketing. In addition, our exploratory research shows future research directions based on findings from the point of view of green consumer behavior. The study is an in-depth analysis of the factors determining green purchasing behavior. It contributes to the current literature by strengthening the existing knowledge about the factors influencing green purchase behavior in developing countries.

Highlights

IntroductionThe concept that has changed the approach to marketing is the stakeholder theory, where purchasers are recognized as one of the most significant groups and positioned at the beginning of the development process in an enterprise as a strategic starting point
The concept that has changed the approach to marketing is the stakeholder theory, where purchasers are recognized as one of the most significant groups and positioned at the beginning of the development process in an enterprise as a strategic starting point.Contemporary concepts of business management increasingly take into account the ecological and social aspects of companies’ operations
Research has shown that green products were bought by the majority of respondents relatively rarely and accidentally

Summary

Introduction

The concept that has changed the approach to marketing is the stakeholder theory, where purchasers are recognized as one of the most significant groups and positioned at the beginning of the development process in an enterprise as a strategic starting point. Contemporary concepts of business management increasingly take into account the ecological and social aspects of companies’ operations. This is reflected in the development of the corporate social responsibility concept, which made businesses become interested in creating value for all stakeholder groups, including purchasers [1]. Consumers’ recognition of the importance of caring for the environment in the context of civilization threats is reflected in the change of values, attitudes, structure of needs, and the conditions and methods of satisfying them, as well as in transforming purchasing behavior.

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion